20110421
presstv
The African Union (AU) says that an AU plan for a political solution to the ongoing crisis in Libya has stalled due to a precondition set by Libyan revolutionary forces.

In a news briefing at the Washington Foreign Press Center on Wednesday, AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping said that Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi has accepted the AU plan but the revolutionaries have refused to negotiate unless Gaddafi leaves Libya, a Press TV correspondent reports.

The African Union official further pointed out that the precondition of the revolutionaries' side is blocking any chance of a cessation of hostilities.

Ping went on to say that the AU is the only organization that can end the bloodshed in crisis-hit Libya, admitting that the AU roadmap for the North African country is seriously stalled.

Ping, who met earlier with Gaddafi and Libya's opposition to present a plan for a ceasefire and political solution, is now in Washington to meet with top US officials over the Libyan crisis.

Libya's opposition Transitional National Council, which is demanding an end to Gaddafi's decades-long rule, has rejected the AU's proposal to negotiate a way out from the country's deepening crisis unless Gaddafi leaves the country.

"The demand of our people from day one was that Gaddafi must step down," Mustafa Jabril, spokesman for Libya's Transitional National Council said.

"Any initiative which does not include this key popular demand will not be regarded. Muammar Gaddafi and his sons should depart immediately," Jebril added.

Ping has also stressed that the Libyan crisis should be solved politically, not through a military solution.

"For us, we have never been with the military solution," he said.

"Since the beginning, we thought that the situation in Libya should be solved in a political way, and our road map is clear enough concerning the solution in Libya," he added.

The so-called AU roadmap is a five-point plan which calls for a ceasefire and the protection of Libya's civilians, alongside the provision of humanitarian aid for Libyans and foreign workers in the North African country.

The plan also urges dialogue between the two sides, an "inclusive transitional period," and political reforms which "meet the aspirations of the Libyan people."

The war in Libya has so far killed around 10,000 people and injured over 50, 000 others, reports say.

The new death toll was announced by Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Tuesday after he held talks in Rome with Libyan revolutionary leader, Mustafa Abdel Jalil.

Amid the ongoing fighting between the revolutionaries and forces loyal to Gaddafi, the Western coalition unleashed a major air campaign against regime forces on March 19 under a UN mandate to protect the Libyan population.

Dozens of civilians have been killed in Libya since the Western coalition forces launched the aerial attacks on the North African country.